HTML5 and Mobile: Getting from Good Enough to Great

HTML5 promises to pave the way for easy, device-neutral mobile app development. But, until HTML5 supports sophisticated cross-platform apps we’re stuck building native apps for various mobile devices. Or are we?

In this session, hacker Fil Maj will show how combining HTML5 with open source frameworks, like PhoneGap, bridge what’s possible with HTML5 today and the sophisticated mobile apps developers want to build. You’ll learn how to combine technologies to expose device features, like camera, outside of the existing HTML5 spec.

By learning how to mix open source development tools with HTML5 you don’t have to commit to native development or wait for a mature HTML5 spec to build full-featured, cross-platform apps in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Overview

• Me, Nitobi
• HTML5 is good
  • what do we get
• HTML5 promises to get better
  • Android (Google i/o 2010 announcement [where is that btw?])
  • iOS 4.2 / 5 improvements
• HTML5 not good enough
  • what's missing
• PhoneGap to the rescue
  • adds missing features, one giant polyfill
  • open source, contributors, other marketing-type info
  • example apps
  • api examples
  • a typical application (structure, code)
• Cross-platform PhoneGap
  • examples of platform differences, and how PhoneGap solves them
    • lifecycle events
    • key events
      • mention native menu plugin
    • permission/security models
• PhoneGap is a hybrid app
  • we love the web, so we do as much as we can in there. good for web devs
  • not limited to just web: plugins
  • sample
• PhoneGap Build
  • intro shpiel

Dependencies

You need showoff to run this presentation. So you need Ruby. Easy install:

gem install showoff

Then from this directory:

showoff serve

Finally, point your browser to http://localhost:9090